Articles in Book Review
Reviewed by Neal D. Presa
Anglican Bible scholar N.T. Wright addresses the sharp criticism of Reformed Baptist pastor John Piper and other critics who see Wright’s representation of the so-called “New Perspective” as a threat to the doctrines of forensic justification and imputation from the 16th century Protestant Reformation and 17th century post-Reformation.
Reviewed by Philip Ruge-Jones
Thomas Boomershine offers a meticulous reading of the final three chapters of Mark. As he reconstructs the impact that this gospel had on those who first heard it, a very different set of conclusions arise from those embraced by much of contemporary scholarship.
Reviewed by Neal D. Presa
In this volume, Tim Keller has given us a tour de force that every homiletics professor and pastor will want to buy, read, and apply to their preaching and teaching. In this volume, Keller is careful to say that he has not written a preaching manual, but he has penned his preaching manifesto. In reading this book, you get a sense that you are sitting at the feet of a preaching master while at once with a fellow brother in Christ who is encouraging and rooting you on in the serious business of exegeting text, context, and subtext.
Reviewed by Karen D. Belin
Prophets highlighted in scripture, exclusive of a few prophetesses, are primarily men, and in many instances, biblical prophecies and psalms by unknown authors are assumed to be men. However, can established writings in the canon be reassigned to prophetesses, who we know existed in ancient times, but allegedly have no record of? Are we mistakenly identifying scriptural prose and songs as being that of men? Nancy C. Lee, addresses ideas such as these and explores biblical language, poetry, and phonetics in order to distinguish female voices embedded within scripture in an attempt to discover unbeknown to us, female prophetic voices traditionally presumed to be predominantly male.
Reviewed by Neal D. Presa
This book is the first volume in “The Promise of Homiletical Theology” series as part of the Homiletical Theology section in the Academy of Homiletics. Boston University homiletics scholar, David Schnasa Jacobsen, collaborated with six other homileticians in describing the multivalent relationships of preaching, preaching preparation and theology. At its core, the volume asserts that every part of the preaching craft is engaged in theology and is itself theological by definition because the subject, object, and predicate of preaching is God.
Reviewed by Neal D. Presa
To know oneself, one must have a proper understanding of God. Or to put it simply: the true identity of God leads to true identity of who we are, whose we are, and what we are to be and to do. For the task and craft of preaching the identity of God is critical, essential, and pivotal. Paul Molnar applies Barth’s theology of the Trinity and election, and then uses the thoughts of one of Barth’s students, the late reformed theologian, Thomas F. Torrance, to bring clarity to Barth’s thoughts on the matter, and to provide a corrective to contemporary theologies.
Reviewed by Samuel Cruz
This publication offers a wealth of information of Latino Pentecostalism within the Assemblies of God denomination, and of the denomination in general. One major contribution of the book is Espinosa’s emphasis and his providing documentation of the important and often-neglected fact of the instrumental roles played by Latinas in the origins and formation of the Pentecostal movement.
Reviewed by Neal Presa
As a volume written from and for Global North contexts, Bieler and Gutmann call preachers to synchronic the “how” (form) and the “what” (content) of preaching to the “life-worlds” of parishioners, specifically, and the human family, more broadly.
Reviewed by Neal Presa
Fuller Theological Seminary president Mark Labberton and Redeemer Presbyterian Church pastor Timothy Keller each provide the Church at-large with a clear articulation of how the Gospel influences our walk with Jesus Christ in the public square. What is at stake for all Christians is living faithfully and credibly with the hope that is in us.
Reviewed by Neal Presa
Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010).
Reviewed by Keith A. Russell
The first is Opening the Scriptures from the Christian Library Press; the second is Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries from Fortress Press.
Reviewed by Neal Presa
This volume describes the practical implications of being missional upon the preaching craft, and, by extension, upon the mission and ministry of the Church.